RCG Blog To The Point

Small Victories in the Life of a PR Professional

Posted on January 13, 2014

It’s no secret that working in public relations can be stressful; late nights, early mornings, and lots of small details to remember can lead to caffeine addiction and elevated blood pressure. Most of us stick with public relations because we enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with pulling off a successful client event or landing top tier media coverage. But, even when we don’t have a client featured in The New York Times, there are certain smaller successes that can brighten our entire day.

You can log-in to CisionCision is an essential tool for PR; it is a database of media contacts which we use to create targeted media lists of reporters most likely to cover the client or news we are currently focusing on. Unfortunately, the database is a costly one and with only so many log-ins for company use, getting time on Cision can be difficult and leads to threads of emails pleading for notification when someone signs out. However, every so often, when you’re running on a deadline and need to look up that one key reporter’s contact information, you’ll miraculously be granted speedy access to the website. The Cision gods have shined down upon you, and you feel like you can accomplish anything!

You condense a social media message into 140 charactersSocial media is an essential part of any brand’s image and customer communication. Some companies have even discarded their websites for Facebook pages. Engaging in social media for our clients allows us to have some fun and be creative; often it is one of the most entertaining parts of the job. Of course, we’ve all experienced the frustration of crafting the perfect message, only to see that it’s 145 characters rather than the 140 allowed on Twitter. From abbreviations, to shortened links, to funky punctuation, we all have tricks for making our messages work. Sometimes, we feel that our shortening has ruined the pizzazz of our original message. But, when you least expect it, you find a hidden space and comma that allow your original message to stand. And that message is sure to gain dozens of ReTweets and favorites! You’re on top of the world.

You can find the UVM figure for a blogProviding our clients with results reporting is how they measure success. In our business, media impressions (i.e. how many people a story reaches) is the metric we use. To show our clients the awareness achieved by each media hit, we look up circulation numbers for print media, audience for radio and TV broadcast, and unique visitors per month for websites. Tracking down circulation numbers for newspapers and magazines is typically straightforward. If the information isn’t on Cision, you can call their circulation desk to ask. But, websites can be a little trickier. When Cision doesn’t have the information, we need to turn to online tracking companies such as Compete or Quantcast. Smaller websites, like blogs, may not have means of tracking site traffic or have ways of differentiating page views from unique visits. For us, it feels like admitting defeat if you leave the media impression blank for an outlet. When you manage to easily locate a blog’s UVM through Google, other site traffic databases, or email, you feel like James Bond.